Providing prayer and thought for men as we all continue to serve Christ and become men of God.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Devotion 1.31.17

In education, we have come a long way from the days of sitting in rows, taking information from the chalkboard, writing on slates, and taking tests on tablets. Science has taught us better approaches to learning, some of which includes technology and other "brain-based" strategies (strategies that are better adapted to how the brain receives and processes information and new information). And these strategies can be met with resistance from the public for a variety of reasons that often boil down to this: "That's not how we did it when I went to school."

I think where we, as educators, fall short is in our responses. The first thing that should come from our mouths when talking to the public is this: How we care about children and their learning hasn't changed over the years, but what we know about how they learn has. There are some things that remain true in the teacher/student relationship regardless of age, and there are some things that change as we progress scientifically and medically in our knowledge and how that impacts teaching.

Paul, in talking at Corinth, says this to a group trying to process a new way of thinking about the faith they've become a part of: "Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages of our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Corinthians 2:6 - 8)

Like education, there are certain truths that do not pass away. In our faith, the mature impart a wisdom, but the truth is that wisdom is not an earthly wisdom. Those ways pass with the ages. The wisdom we share is that of Christ and him crucified (2:2). That does not go away. That is an eternal truth.

Pray that we share as brothers in the faith this eternal truth. Pray that our message gets through the wisdom of today, the earthly wisdom we know that can and does resist the eternal wisdom of Christ and him crucified.